What a week! I'm still digging out from having a booth at the Conference in Nashville. Was such fun to meet so many of my customers and on-line friends in person.
Some thoughts...
1. Coni Crawford is GREAT! Her books are wonderful. If you want to get into pattern drafting/changing and have good fit - I highly recommend her books. She has written textbooks for colleges, and worked in fashion schools, and in the industry. Great qualifications, and my new measuring stick to hold anything else up against. Just because something is printed and in a magazine doesn't make it absolutely correct! Her website is: www.fashionpatterns.com. If I were a generous sized woman, I'd definitely use her patterns designed well for them! Due to the increase in size of many of our populace, she says that 1/3 of our country is without adequately fitting patterns.
2. Met Nancy Nix-Rice - author of the Palmer/Pletsch published Looking Good book - which I still think is the bestest book on the market for image, wardrobe planning, etc. A very nice lady with a set of gorgeous teenage twin daughters.
3. Susan Lazear also recommended www.firstview.com as a great place to see the images of runway collections.
Some quotes from her that I think are worth repeating:
"Designers rework an existing idea."
"Designers see things others don't."
"Designers are not Goddesses!"
"Call your sewing room your Studio - what you call it changes as your confidence grows. You, as a home sewer, are a "Designer" because that is what you se yourself as. You work in your "Studio" because that is what you call it. You are a Designer when you can't turn it off and see thiings as others don't. "
A "knock-off" is copying a garment as closely as possible - this is what the designs in The Sewing Workshop are.
An "Adaptation" is using a garmend design as a source of inspiration - not seeking to copy it exactly.
Speaking of that - I find the boutiques in nice hotels are the BEST places to do alot of "Inspiration shopping"! The one at the Gaylord was GREAT! I have pages of scribbled notes to develop. Many purses using Jean Tops - and embellished with Rhinestones. Many were lined with cardboard that was covered with Silk Doupionni to give them that stiff body that the fancy dancy expensive purses have these days - and these were $$$$$!!
Hey - the other thing was - I saw lots of JEANS in the shop with tall tops! Meaning - they come to the waist! I'm not sure if that is fashion changing, or just who they are marketing to - but if I still were on the Jean Hunt, I'd have made time to try them on. Real sizes as well!
Kenneth King was interesting - though the idea of using line from architecture as inspiration for fashion is straight out of many college classes I had. Personal opinion: he could keep his sexual preferences to himself and be equally entertaining.
Quote from Kenneth: "What I make is what I do and what I do is what I am. " Worth pondering... But, for myself, what I do is NOT what I am. I am more than that - especially in the eyes of my Maker, the one and only God.
Anyone else - please comment on your experiences, impressions. This is a wonderful gathering of those of us who get our 'kick' out of garment sewing. Yea...........
Thursday, August 04, 2005
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